United Nations (From the United Nations Web Site... ) The United Nations was established on 24 October 1945 by 51 countries committed to preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security. Today, nearly every nation in the world belongs to the UN: membership now totals 189 countries. When States become Members of the United Nations, they agree to accept the obligations of the UN Charter, an international treaty which sets out basic principles of international relations. According to the Charter, the UN has four purposes: to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among nations, to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights, and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations. UN Members are sovereign countries. The United Nations is not a world government, and it does not make laws. It does, however, provide the means to help resolve international conflict and formulate policies on matters affecting all of us. At the UN, all the Member States - large and small, rich and poor, with differing political views and social systems - have a voice and vote in this process. The United Nations has six main organs. Five of them - the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council and the Secretariat - are based at UN Headquarters in New York. The sixth, the International Court of Justice, is located at The Hague, the Netherlands. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Its constitution was adopted by the London Conference in November 1945, and entered into effect on the 4th of November 1946 when 20 states had deposited instruments of acceptance. It currently has 188 Member States (as of 19 October 1999). The main objective of UNESCO is to contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science, culture and communication in order to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations. To fulfill its mandate, UNESCO performs five principal functions : - Prospective Studies : what forms of education, science, culture and communication for tomorrow's world? - The advancement, transfer and sharing of knowledge : relying primarily on research, training and teaching activities. - Standard-setting action : the preparation and adoption of international instruments and statutory recommendations. - Expertise : provided to Member States for their development policies and projects in the form of "technical co-operation". - Exchange of specialized information. World Education Forum - Dakar Framework (2000) Education For All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments (Dakar, Senegal, April 2000) The World Education Forum was the first and most important event in education at the dawn of the new century. By adopting the Dakar Framework for Action, the 1,100 participants of the Forum reaffirmed their commitment to achieving Education for All by the year 2015 and entrusted UNESCO with the leadership role in education. World Education Forum - Jomtien Declaration (1990) World Declaration on Education For All - Meeting Basic Learning Needs (Jomtien, Thailand, March 1990) More than 40 years ago, the nations of the world, speaking through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, asserted that "everyone has a right to education". "Despite notable efforts by countries around the globe to ensure the right to education for all, the following realities persist: - More than 100 million children, including at least 60 million girls, have no access to primary schooling; - More than 960 million adults, two-thirds of whom are women, are illiterate, and functional illiteracy is a significant problem in all countries, industrialized and developing; - More than one-third of the world's adults have no access to the printed knowledge, new skills and technologies that could improve the quality of their lives and help them shape, and adapt to, social and cultural change; and - More than 100 million children and countless adults fail to complete basic education programmes; millions more satisfy the attendance requirements but do not acquire essential knowledge and skills;" United Nations Development Programme UNDP is the United Nations' principal provider of development advice, advocacy and grant support. Its core programmes focus on the countries that are home to 90 percent of the world's extremely poor people. UNDP is widely known as "the developing countries' development agency," because of the trust and confidence it enjoys among governments and NGOs in many parts of the developing world. In both donor and host countries, UNDP is widely regarded as a partner, rather than an adversary. UNDP maintains a presence on the ground in virtually every developing country, with an unrivaled network of more than 130 field offices. UNDP's commitment to a universal presence has proven especially useful in post-conflict situations, and with states that have been otherwise isolated from the international community. UNDP helps governments in developing countries to improve policies and build a greater institutional capacity for delivering basic services and reducing poverty. Many governments also seek UNDP's assistance in expanding and sustaining national policy dialogues, including with local officials and representatives of civil society. In each country office, the UNDP Resident Representative normally also serves as the Resident Coordinator of development activities for the United Nations system as a whole. Through such coordination, UNDP seeks to ensure the most effective use of UN and international aid resources. UNDP also engages in extensive advocacy work about poverty issues. Its widely-cited Human Development Report ranks every country each year in areas such as per-capita income, literacy, life expectancy and respect for women's rights. The goal is to put people back at the center of the development process. In addition, UNDP has helped more than 120 developing countries produce their own National Human Development Reports, which provide a basis for informed local debate about priorities and policies. These Reports also help donor governments to measure the impact of their aid dollars, and to communicate the way in which aid is making a positive difference both to direct beneficiaries and to electorates at home.

Introduction Overviews International United Nations World Bank National China Hong Kong Korea Taiwan Issues Bibliography to MDDE614